MIAMI _ This was a win predicated on greed. But achieved by taking what is given.
After the Miami Marlins took the first two games of the Players Weekend series against the Padres, manager Don Mattingly said his team needed to "get greedy" in striving for a sweep to aid their pursuit in the wild-card race.
The Padres didn't give Giancarlo Stanton much to hit Sunday at Marlins Park, but when Clayton Richard left a 2-1 slider over the plate in the eighth inning, the Marlins slugger didn't miss it. He drove it into the bushes in center field for his 50th home run of the season.
The two-run shot broke a 2-2 stalemate and sent the Marlins on their way to a 6-2 win that completed a six-game season sweep of the Padres.
Stanton drove in three runs and scored two while raising his season average to .296. He became the first to hit 50 homers in the National League since Prince Fielder in 2007. He was the earliest to reach the plateau since Sammy Sosa on Aug. 26, 2001.
Christian Yelich followed Stanton with a triple to right and scored on an errant throw. Derek Dietrich belted his eighth homer later in the inning off former Marlin Carter Capps.
Earlier, Stanton's two-out, run-scoring double to the opposite field got the Marlins going in the third inning. It was the product of an unselfish approach and had the effect of a two-run homer, as Stanton also scored on a wild pitch.
After hitting two homers Friday, Stanton said he wasn't striving for the long ball and acknowledged that pitches to hit out were going to become increasingly at a premium.
"I just want to hit the ball hard, and be in position to strike when they give me a pitch," he said.
Richard walked him on four pitches in the first inning, when the left-hander struck out the other three batters he faced.
After Dee Gordon bunted for a two-out hit in the third, Stanton reached out and punched a one-strike changeup into the right-field corner.
That sent Gordon scampering home from first with the aid of an off-target throw. He stuck the landing on a dive around catcher Austin Hedges, and Stanton went to third on the throw. He came home on a wild pitch with Yelich batting.
Those were the only runs the Marlins managed in the first seven innings against Richard, who also hit a two-run homer _ the second of his nine-year career _ off Dan Straily.
That marred a potential outstanding outing by Straily, who was solid otherwise for six innings.
The righty was cruising until he walked the No. 8 hitter with one out in the fifth. Richard got the barrel on a fastball down in the zone and yanked it over the 335-foot sign just inside the foul pole in right.
Straily had settled in after working around a leadoff double in the first inning while finding his command. He was sharper after taking 21 pitches to navigate the opening frame.
Straily labored to finish the sixth after serving a two-out walk and infield single to load the bases. But he got ahead of Dusty Coleman 0-2 and painted the outside corner with a fastball for the called strike that ended his day with a flourish after 98 pitches.
Straily struck out five while allowing six hits and three walks.
The Marlins weren't on the top of their game following Saturday's late-night 11-inning win. Gordon and first baseman Tyler Moore got crossed up and let Jabari Blash's popup fall for a hit in the fourth. It could have been problematic with a runner racing to third.
But catcher A.J. Ellis hustled to first and took Gordon's throw behind Blash to apply the tag for an inning-ending out _ a rare 4-2 putout at first.
In the seventh, Mike Aviles hit a would-be double along the line in right but took his time shifting into high gear, and Blash threw him out.
